Tweet
There were no racial taunts from the victim of abuse from Marshall, the only person to allege racial vilifications came from the mouth of Marshall's manager. reports in yesterday's Telegraph state the victim was punched in the face both by Marshall and Marshall"s friend, Seems Benji has a fair history fighting strangers at clubs and pubs.
-
-
as usual, their first thoughts revolve around lying to attempt to minimise the damageOriginally posted by aramis View Post
Marshall = racist taunt
Carney = on the way to meet managerComment
-
-
I can't see how Carney's stated destination that morning could "minimise the damage". That is, of course, unless he was actually heading somewhere that could do further damage - e.g. the Coogee Granny Bashing Festival. Is that what you mean?Originally posted by Tries Off Kicks View PostComment
-
That's next month. March is Dwarf throwing at Coogee Bay Hotel.Originally posted by Spirit of 66 View PostComment
-
Just one final point...
What sort of a name is "Benji" for a 26 year old footballer anyway? He deserves to be taunted for having a name more suited to a cocker spaniel.Comment
-
-
Charged with assault and still gets to suit up and play this weekend.Comment
-
The NRL will not impose any further punishment on Benji Marshall after his involvement in an incident on Saturday morning, meaning the Wests Tigers star is free to play in his club's opening NRL match.Originally posted by Ben94 View Post
Marshall has been charged with assault and will face court on April 20, but NRL chief executive David Gallop was satisfied that there was no other behaviour or breaches of conduct on the night that warranted any further charges of misconduct, a suspension or fine from the NRL.
"Benji Marshall has been charged with assault but there is no evidence of any other misconduct on that night which would lead us to look at misconduct other than the assault charge," Gallop said.
"That puts us in the situation where the facts are in dispute.
"It is a matter that needs to be determined by the court.
"At this stage the club is not in a position to take any action.
"We accept that and we are in a similar situation."
Should Marshall be found guilty when he faces court, then Gallop expects his club to take firm action.
"Clearly if an assault charge is proven aganist Benji, then we would expect his club, Wests Tigers, to take strong action.
"If they weren’t to do that then we would also look at action, but we are not at that point yet and the matter that is before the court is an issue where the facts are in dispute and that will be an issue determined by the court."
Gallop stressed that there was a "clear and stark difference" between Marshall’s case and the decisions behind Brett Stewart’s four-match suspension in 2009 and Todd Carney’s recent $10, 000 fine.
"We look at each one of these situations on its merits and in its own circumstances," Gallop said.
"We look at issues of commonality and we look at issues that are not common across different issues.
"Comparisons are often made but those comparisons are not often necessarily apples with apples.
"These are certainly different situations to the one we dealt with two years ago with Brett Stewart.
"In that (Stewart’s) situation there was clear evidence of misconduct on the night that was separate to the allegation of sexual assault.
"We left the allegation of sexual assault for the courts to determine, but we acted in relation to the misconduct that happened earlier on in the night.
"That’s a clear and stark difference with the situation we are dealing with now with Benji Marshall and I want to make that clear to everyone."
When comparing Marshall’s case with Carney’s, Gallop added that there were no facts in dispute in Carney’s "inadvertent mistake".
"Todd Carney’s department is clearly something where the fact is established.
"As I said last week, an inadvertent mistake by him, not a deliberate piece of conduct.
"I met with Todd because his issues are long term; they relate to some personal issues for him which the game has been involved in for some time. That is a different issue to what we are dealing with today."
While Gallop would not elaborate on the particulars of the night, he added: "Clearly you put yourself in a risky situation at that hour and in those places.
But we’re not about to legislate on eating fast food or staying up late at night."
The NRL’s boss conceded the saga was out of character for the code’s new ‘face of the game’.
"I think we all saw last week that Benji takes his role in the game not only as a player on the field, but a player off the field, seriously.
"No doubt he would be distressed to find himself in this situation.
"Of course we’d rather not be dealing with this situation this week."Comment
-
-
They are using that one for the 2012 Season Launch. The face of Rugby League will be Charlie Sheen.Originally posted by Madduke View PostComment
-
Well he does have tiger's blood running through his veins.Originally posted by Spirit of 66 View PostComment
Comment